Past Imperfect

Penguin Books Ltd, 2004. Paperback. Good. How does a new thriller writer carve out a name for himself in an overcrowd ed field? With Past Imperfect, Matthews shows that he is already a novelist of real accomplishment. Spanning three decades and moving between France, America and England with a slew of forensic, medical and psychiatric eviden ce to keep the reader irresistibly gripped, Matthews sets his narrative in motion with a car accident in California that has deadly consequences for t wo boys left fighting for their lives. French detective Dominic Fornier (a character owing not a little to Simenon) finds himself pulled out of the sl uggish rural backwaters he is used to in order to unearth the clues that li e in a young boy's psyche. And the blackmail and political intrigue that Fo rnier encounters are no less intimidating than the ruthless killer determin ed to ensure that his identity is not disclosed. The exhilarating, picaresq ue sweep of Matthews' plot needs to be held together with a strong protagon ist and with the laconic Fornier, Matthews has created just such a hero. If at times, one may feel the changing of gears between the legal and forensi c aspects of the piece, this hardly matters. The delineation of each countr y is accomplished with dash and verve, and if (at 500 pages) this is a leng thy read, few will find their attention straying at any point.